>> bonnie: this week on "to the contrary up first, should health care reformover reproductive services -- if so, that overturns a 32-year b.

then, one democrat and one republican woman led the news this week. behind theeadlines, making the country cleaner and greer for fure generations. [ ♪music ] >> bonnie: ello, i'm bonnie eé. welcome to "to the contrar" a diussion of newsnd social trends from verse perspectives. up first, abortion and alth careeform. this week the white use and congress ctinued to negotiate health care reform proposals, inuding whether reproductive heth services r women should beunded. some repubcans and 19 conservative house democrats are pushinto exclude abortion services.

th say taxpayers shouldn be forc to pay for abortions. federal law s banned funds for abortions since passage of the faus hyde amendmt in 1976. choi advocates say women's basic health care includes all forms of reproctive health services -- cluding abortion. a new poll shows most americans sareproductive health services including abortion and contraception shou be provided. our polling that we did rently show that about to 1, people think basic reproduive health services for women should be included in a befits package. and thefore, it's good for members to support what the public wants. most of us pay for our own prate insurance now, and we will in the future ao. most of us have abortion coverage in our privathealth plans, and do believe that is something women wod not want taken away in the future.

>> bonni so congresswoman, should health care reform incle coverage of abortions fopoor women? >> bonnie, don eve try suring health care forll americans byaking ay a vital service many already have! >> look, i don't think aricans should b forced to pay for anything thatiolates their personal or religious beliefs. an this would not be adding choice thealth care. this wld be saying we're now going to have taxpayer fundings of abortions in this coury. >> i think the should only include that ifhey don't want any meangful health care to ss. they don't have the vot. why, when they're strgling to pass what i csider a extremely important reform would they want to intject the most hotutton issue there isn a way that uld doom thentire effor >> they should not. mandates make costs rise. and we're going to have

mandes, why not have a manda that you know, covers the majority of women? let's go fstrogen replacement erapy aa mandate for health care coverage. >> cancer coverage. >> bonnie: the legal possibilities, b also, you sa you didn't want to pay for somethin that violated your religious and mal beliefs >> uh-huh. >> bonnie: couldn'you say the sam thing that proessives who realize wayhead of t curve that abstinence only, billns of dollars of funng went to that, w ineffective and it violated their beliefs, too, isn't that -- m point is, isn't there thatind of funding all of t time in the federal governnt, that violates everybody's -- you kno you're going to fin someby -- >> the feder government is doing souch of what it shouldn't be doing every day. that's why we have political debate i would take issue wh

the polling answers, y can get anything you want depending on the question you ask. in the recent poll by galp, more and more amecans generally over 50% are opposed to abortions. would hasten to say most people don't want them. they're talking about whetherr not the feder government is ing to pay for it. as kay justointed out when 're trying toet health care costs under control, all you have to look is individual states, e state tt has 1800 mandates o their health insurance and another state tt mass a lot fewer, it cts a lot more f health care in massachusetts as it doe in xas. >> wait a minute. we're talking about an unmandate. that is toay, nobodis mandating anying. you have a choice of a picy, whicoffers abortion, and one that does not.

and what makes this very hard is, this isn't just dealing with poor people. because the public pn is going to go w up the sca to people who are losing health care but otherwise -- >> bonnie: wit no means testing. >> well, the wille means testing but eve with means testing, there talkingbout upward of 70,80,000 per individual, and much mre than that for couples and famils. so you're well into the mdle class. moreover se of theseeople have had insurance. most of them have had some inranc they can't affo i thr employers have drped it, it ct toouch sthey've got to g into the public plan and u're going to say to millions of americans, you used to ha abortion cerage but you don't have tm anymore because the federagovernment says so? i agree wh you, that it -- age with you. try passing that one you're a magicn if y can

pass that one! >> i think it's a little mor complicated than that. and i think is complicated cause, there are plicly funded healthare plans right now that do not cov abortion serves. and so, if we' talkingbout a federal -- >> bonnie: buthere are hospitals gles and there are hospitals that don't also. >> bonnie: the cflict hospital -- the catholic hospitals,none of them d >> my point is in a new system ere weave a public plan competing against a private an, that's one set of circumstances. however, the concern i since the federal government sets the rules is the federal government going to say a basic rightor every plans then, therefore, that all plas must provide abortion? >> that's aed herring. the public plan would have several different kinds of service just lik the feder an does.

just like thrir the's several differt types o policies. youould have some with abtion and some without abortion. [simultaneous spch] >> bone: wait a minute. that's a hot button issue evybody has ideasow they want their tax dolrs spent. >> and this would be a big chge, right? >> bnie: but you say states wod lose money by paying for this. what about the state of lifornia that had to pay for l the emergency care for those octuplets? do you think if sh hadn't had herself fertized, that that wouldn't have saved the state money -- more moneyhan on emergency care? >> you bring u another issue ve well, talking about t octuplets. reproductiveights, quote quote, covers a lot of sff. iv the treatment in california

with the octuplets, aot of different thing. everybody will demand their rsion covered. e're looking at choices here. >> bonnie: i want to le linda into this conversion. >> well for starters i feelhe way you do about the govnment supporting a funding abortion. but even if iidn't, really carebout health careeform. i want it to pass. and itill not if we inject this into it. i mean thas the bottom line. >> and bonnie, i was just going to make the point. lifornia has one of the richest benefi packages associated with its health care. so if you want to look at what's driving costn california, it wasn't the octuplets, it was the mandates that a in month most health -most health packages. >> bone: what's dving emergency rooms 84 of them ose in california and similar proble in texas and floda, is immigration >> using the wd mandates,he federal government isot going

toay the onl w to gethis public plan is to have abortion in it. i mean you're setting up some straw men her jus he like the republicans sy by use of the publiclan. they're trng to make that look like socialid medicine, whers they're trying to create diversity likeou have in the soci sector. >> bonnie: we have to g off this topic. but since the will be a variety of plans, not all of them so it won't havehe widespread finanal impact you're talking about. from health re reform to politics aches leadinpps lding . -- polits' leading lads. this week, two women's names dominated thpolitical adlines: sonia sotomayor an sarah palin. but they are drawing aention for ve different reasons as their careers seem to beoving in opposi directions. wither senate confirmation hearings beginning this ming week, judge tomayor is expected to clinch the

nomination and bece the third male supreme court justice - the second sitng right now. many congression republicans have given up on ting to target sotomayor becau they are more worried about the future of their par. this, ter a month-long series of gop sndals and the surprise signation of sarah pin as alaska's governor. seen as a rising gop star,palin won't say whether stepping dow means she's preparing for a presidential run in 2012, or simply retreating fro the national spotlight. new u.a. today/gallup poll finds the majority of republicans are baing on the former. two-thirds of those survey wants lin to be a "major national political fige" in the future >> bonnie: soet's start with sarah palin, the beginningr the end of her run for esidt. >> i don'tnow the answer to that question. you know, look. i don't know sarah palin personal and i d't know why shetepped down. there was a lot of pressureput on her family. i don't ink it was helpful

at she stepped away from a job that s had committed to doing. and the idea that i'mow a lame duck, you don't have to annonce yet that you wen't going to run again. so that's my polical strategy side of it. having not known all of the background here, maybe she was maki the best decisionor her family >> first ias skeptal. congress isut of session. ani must say, i don't think e media did their homework here. when i went back to washington and began tread closely about the way peopl have go at her in the sta, the number of comaints against her, se people rlly out to get her in her own ste a h her reputation was being ruined -- >> bone: but that doesn't go away. the vestigation continues. well, apparently this bad relationship with now perhaps she me her own bed and should ie in it. but if you look it from h point of view,hat is to gai by remaining there, being

pilloried every dayrom your own legislature from multiple complaints all of which she has won -- >>onnie: but let me -- >> -- inste of going out making money speakg to loving crowds. >> bonnie: the gains thisment f she doe run-d thi she does run in 2012, romney can stand in front of her and say, "i didn't quit." huabee can sit in fro of her and say, "i didn't quit. ". >> therere many hats you can wear. may it was a good decisio for a mom. awfudecision as a politicn ooptsz. >> her supporters don care. i am a supporter. but a lot of them don't. talk to her more than you do. >> let her speak. >> my fily are all palin

republics. they love this woman and tre is nothing she cld do tha would shake her faith in her and in fact the more she gets out therand says, i've been beaten up by the mean press, the better she does. th snarkierhe press gets, the re it helps her. i don't thi it hurts her case by looking like a quitter as you say and having her tenure as governor of the state. i'm not pitive it hurts her. if there's -- there's less attention to the scandalsou're talking about. >> bone: we don't have much time. i want to get oto sotomayor. is her approval aorgone conclusion vtually? >> it might be. a fight is also a fgone conclusion. >> bonnie: why bother? when you look at the polls, she

has about if i%. >> well the new hav case comi out didn't help. >> bonnie: right, but for t longest time what the polls we shoig was, attack woman attack a hpanic, let's get away from the women's vote, but the hispanics, which the publicans were making gains withnd lost hribly by obama, don't the turn off that segment by attackinger? >> the process is that sh does have tface tough questioning. and because somne questions her positions or ask her why she wrote somhing or what she meant by that or takes issue withhat, isn't an attac it's called americanovernance. that's the way it works >> and they have to go at her. theeal question, and i agree wither, isow they go at her. youetter watch out here, becae this is a wom whoas a defense and knows howo defend herself and she is one of

a kindf she is the thurgood marshall o her time. >> just repeating her pas statements in some cas can get the answers they are looking for. >> bonnie: we shallee. bend the headlines environmental protecon agency adminirator lisa jackson. a scntist and engineer by training, ckson is the first afcan american to hold the cabinet-vel position. chargewith protecting the health and natal environment of millis of americans, she is confronting somef the country's biggest ecological ills to date. i sat wn with administrator jackson to fnd out what her top prrities are at thepa. >> la jackson: it's clean air and ean water, the fact that it's the year 200and in many areas of is country, we're starting tfeel real stress about wer supply. fit off, who gets it? 's a scare resource. >> bonnie: well,hat's been the history of t west, right? figh over water? >> lisa ckson: yeah, and now wee starting to seit here.

you know, we saw therought in the southeast last yea so it's very fre in people's minds ... a problem that many of thought over the years, "oh, well, maybe we're a bit immune to it, since we don have deserts," and nowe're starting to see that. that's the firstanifestation of a future that we have to start to guard agast. that being sd, the solution is actually not unlike energy. we waste a lot of ter in this couny. it's not just cause we, you kn, leave the faucet on when we brush our teeth, ich hopefully wre not doing, but because muc of our wer infrastructure is quite ol anso the proce of getting a glass of water from, you kno a reservoir toour home may waste anotheglass and a half or y waste a half a gla. th's water that we have to really consider not wasting anymor >> bonnie: you were up befe a senate commiee, and senator barrasso of wyomg was giving you pretty hard time on that. i also went on the intert and saw that he had gone on a conservative host's shoand agreed with e guy that there's

no such thing as gbal warming. how do you en talk to ople whose views are so disrate from yours? w do you negotia with somebody with thosviews? >> lisa jackson: wel first, you nevestop talking to them, because i think part of at we ve to be ae to do for the americaneople as a whole is answer those kinds of critiques. it would be an understatemt to say that senatorbarrasso and i have a pretty stng sagreementand not only does he disagree with me,ut with thvast majority scientists. there quite a consensus t there that firs the climate is channg, and that it's changing in large part because othings man has do. th's allhis whole debate is about. and i ually say to the average american, when i go outo speak, lten, don't take my word for i look, doou feel as though the climate is changing? not just in that it's t. let's talk aut how climate changes. it changes in water. do you feel li you have less water, or too much water? do y feel as though e highs are getting higher and the low

e getting lower? that kd of anecdotal evidence is usuallyhe first place where it catches a t of a spark. and then refer them to scientific studies that ow that this isn'something that's st happening because we're o a cycl but if you look at t science oft, the amount of co2 we're putting in the atmphere is staying the, and it stays ere for decades. >> bonnie: preside obama is the most pronvironment presidt we've had in a long time, possib the most pro-envinment. buthere are plen of people in this country who are re coerned about businesse and bulge out of t recession than theyre about lowering carbon emissions or restrictin factors so that they don't spew lot of poution into the air. is thereommon ground on this issue? >> lisa jackson: i do believe theris. e presidenhas said over and er that the clean ergy agenda he's trying tpush, and that's on purpose. we talk about energy and we talk about renewables. we talk about energy eiciency.

we talk out the fact that when u get more renewab power, when you cut down on the amount of foreign oil you need, when you hire more people to do weatherization and make our homes morenergy efficient, all those thingsead us to a cleaner aifuture. so they de with things like climate change, and theyeal with tho other nasty pollutts i described before. and the president has ma it clr, you don't have to choose one or the other. you don't have to cide wheth you want cle air at the expense of having a job o econom opportunity. in ft, he sees the t as very much lind. >> bonnie: a what percentage of those people are willing pay more in tas or have their small businesses pamore in taxeif cap in ade becomes a reality? >> lisa jackso i think if u ask them that question, especially rht now, the vast majority of pele will say, hey, there is no me give in the system. t if you s to them something different, which the preside has said, if you say, list, we're losing manufacturingobs overseas, buyou cannot ship overseas weatherization jobs those are jobs that haveo be

done here, by traine skilled chnicians inhis countr all of that kind of work is wk that the preside is talking about doinhere, so that we can keep a manufacturingase, so we can acally help people move out of this cession. >> bonnie: kay jes, i asked her a lot about water and it just so happed this week, i believe it was, interior secretary ken salazarad to release 98% o a federal wat funds to california alone because the drought is so bad there, becse the state has been rying on melti snow mass for a large part o its water needs and tre's no more snowo melt. so what do you- how do you any she should hdle that? >> we nd clean water and we need it -- y know,t's inresting. people are focusg on third world nations. wihout understanding that we have problems here in our own

country about wat deliver i'll say a couple of things, one, she's a perfect epa director. she's ver articulate and bright. i think conservives have not done a great job of emacing the environme, and speaking out aut what w believe,hich ishat the enronment should b protected and that w have responsibility to take care of moth earth. i thinke need to get that out on the table. but i would say on cap in trade, is it goi -- you know, we -- that's her main thing on her plate right now, andetting that passed for the president. the administration believes at ere's a strong, strong ne for this piece of legislation, and that it's going to have a profound economic, posive impact. nothing could be further from the truth. my goodness,e're going to inves all thfhis time and

energy. we'rnot going to have that much impact on the overall clate, it's going to cosa t of money and lose a lot of jobs. >> every study that've seen shows thathere's a lot of hope in gre jobs, andhat it's not a choice that welways thought itas betwe business and the vironment. and that as you say, everybody should be for conservation. everybody ould be for economic devepment, for new jobs, consvatives no less than liberals, ergy i such a huge issue. >> absolutely. >>ut the climate bill we passed was anything but what we wanted. >> bnie: what about president ama this week in taly and the global climate change awards, treaty th he's workg towards? >> we had done sething hioric, break through -- congressional break throughs are very incremental. he went there at leastrmed with sing from the house.

bonnie: which w wt? >> house passage of the first climate change bill in the united state if we had not done cap in trade, he wld have had to shut his mouth throughout the entire g-8 section. the problem is don't know if there is y absence to china and india to theotion that at, you're the ones that did it? you want uon board? you first, and then maybe us. >> that may bene of the things, lking about the js we will bereating here. miliaritmiliaritycreating facoft or two in r climate, and if that is india and cna, these countrs industrlizing and creating a lot more increasing of the years greenhouse pollutants than we're doing, they're not playing alo, because that wou mean givg up jobs, they're going to te a lot of the mufacturing jobs in this country. wee going to be losing jobs,

transporting tm oversea there are lots of studs from the heritage foundation, the cbo, that sayshat is this going to cost the avera amican feaments. bonnie: but will cost em a whole lot lest than if run out of wate at's it for thisdition of "to the contrary next wee rape as a tool of war in the congo. please join us on the b for "to the contrary ext." whher your views are in agreement or "to the contrary," please join us next time. captiotechnologies, inc . --www.captionteccom--